The
Cumberland Grads have a strange way of saying thank you. A day after picking up
one of the top goalies in the CJHL in a three-way deal that was facilitated by
the Hawkesbury Hawks, the Grads turned around and throttled the Hawks 6-0 in Hawkesbury
last night.

The
Hawks acquired John Griggs from the Pembroke Lumber Kings on Wednesday and then
turned around and dealt him to the Grads on Thursday for third line forward Tim
Hennessey and Cornwall's 5th round pick in the 2009 draft.

Griggs
started 24 games for the league-leading Lumber Kings and won 15 of them. He posted
a league high five shutouts and had the second lowest goals against average at
just over two goals a game, despite having only the seventh best save percentage.

Griggs
gives the Grads the type of depth between the pipes they've been looking for ever
since the departure of Michael Dizgun in November. Adam Mohr has giving the team
some quality minutes in goal since being called up to replace Dizgun, but head
coach and general manager Mark Grady feels the 16-year-old could use another year
of seasoning in Major Midget AAA.

Griggs
was not dressed for the game against Hawkesbury, instead Mohr backed up Adam Laderoute
who was starting only his third game since taking a couple of weeks off to nurse
a nagging injury.

After
getting hung with a pair of losses in his earlier two starts this week, Laderoute
was looking to register a win as was the rest of the team.

As
it turned out, he didn't have to try very hard as his teammates limited the Hawks
to just 11 shots, nine of which came in the second period.

The
Grads outshot their adversaries 11-1 in the opening period but only managed to
score once on a shorthanded effort by Marc-Andre Labelle. They scored twice more
in the second, and added three goals in the third.

Labelle
and Matt Miller had two goals each for the Grads while Jeffrey Campbell and Jeffrey
Clarke added a goal each. In stopping all 11 Hawkesbury shots Laderoute picked
up his first shutout of the season while lowering his goal against average to
2.71.

The
Grads are 2-1-1-1 since the Christmas break, picking up six of a possible 10 points.
They host the Nepean Raiders at the Navan Memorial Arena on Sunday at 3 p.m. in
what should be an entertaining game.

The
Raiders currently sit second in the overall standings behind the Pembroke Lumber
Kings, largely due to their exceptional home record which is 16-1-0-2. Their road
record is a rather ordinary 11-7-0-3.